The river Mole has burst its banks at Leatherhead, six miles south of Sandown, which has taken five inches of rain in three weeks. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

Saturday's race-meeting at Sandown has been abandoned due to a waterlogged track. The decision was made almost immediately after an inspection, brought forward to 2.30pm on Friday.

Andrew Cooper, clerk of the course at the Esher track in Surrey, said there were two areas that were "definitely unraceable". He added: "We're faced with a forecast saying we could get more showers later in the day, plus other pieces of rain tomorrow morning. We'd got to the stage where we would be delaying the inevitable."

Sandown had been scheduled to stage Saturday's feature race-meeting, headlined by the top-class Tolworth Hurdle, for which one runner had travelled over from Ireland. Katenko, a potential Gold Cup contender, was also due to appear on the card.

Horse racing officials elsewhere are doing their best to maintain a brave outlook as Britain braces itself for the worst weather of the new year so far, with a combination of high tides, heavy rains and strong winds expected to cause flooding in parts of the country.

An inspection is planned for 7am on Saturday at Wincanton, where there was 13mm of overnight rain to Friday morning. There is standing water on the chase track and another 6mm to come by one estimate but the clerk, Barry Johnson, showed surprising optimism. "The way the track's taken the rain today, I think we'll be fine," he said.

Turf racing is also scheduled on Saturday at Newcastle, where officials expect "no problems" if current forecasts are correct. There might even be action at Cork in Ireland, despite parts of the nearby city being flooded. "We missed out on the very heavy rain in Cork city and we are totally raceable today," said a spokesman. "We were in a bad state earlier in the week, but the drainage on the course has worked very well."

The outlook is not good for British jump racing beyond Saturday. Plumpton, due to race on Sunday, and Taunton, which has a card scheduled for Monday, report waterlogging. Both have arranged inspections for Saturday morning.